Dad, Friends Grow Baby Beards for Preemie

Friends show their support through a crisis in all kinds of ways. Some bring casseroles, some send nice notes to cheer you up, and if you’re Jason Sucharski, some grow beards.

Jason Sucharski’s son, Chase, was born months early, weighing only one pound and 7 ounces when he arrived in July. While he was being treated in the NICU at Sisters Hospital in Buffalo, Continue reading »

“Stand By Me” Star Pens At-Home Dad Memoir

I’m pretty sure every kid growing up in the ’80s read Stephen King’s short story, The Body — which was turned into the fabulous movie Stand By Me.

Hearing stories about the making of the movie is the absolute only thing I’m interested in reading now that one of the stars, Jerry O’Connell, has inked a deal to write a memoir.

Only problem is his book is about his latest role: stay-at-home dad.

Shoot me now. Bury me with Ray Brower. I don’t care. Continue reading »

Raising the Expectations for Dads

One of the very many things that makes me happy I am living in this era versus the early 1960s (at least as presented on “Mad Men”) is that fathers are expected to take an active role in childcare — and the icky diaper-changing nose-wiping stuff, too, not just playing with your clean, bathed children for an hour before bedtime. I even can think of four stay-at-home dads I personally know without even having to strain my memory.

But the culture is pretty slow to change around us. This NPR essay by Richard Weissbourd talks about being relegated to the role of secondary parent, that his wife is pretty much expected to know all and take responsibility for all, while he’s treated like an adjunct.

Weissbourd points out, for example, that schools rarely send report cards to fathers after a divorce Continue reading »

They Say: Moms Learn From Their Moms, Sons Don’t

One of the more significant causes of fighting between co-parents, I’m guessing, is differences in style or technique in raising your kids. As much as you might talk about the kind of parents you want to be during those blessedly quiet pre-child evenings, when the baby actually arrives some of those plans go right out the window. And finding out that your usually patient spouse is actually a yeller or that your hard-nosed partner is a creampuff can cause conflicts you couldn’t have foreseen before your little ones arrived.

Turns out that for women, a lot of what they learned about mothering comes from their mothers. Men, however, are much less likely to follow their mothers’ parenting practices.

That’s the upshot of a study by researchers at Ohio State University, who tracked around a thousand young adults aged 14 to 22 in 1979 annually, surveying them about their parenting practices, Continue reading »

Obama Defends His Ugly Jeans

In an interview with Today Show’s Meredith Viera (short video after the jump), President Obama defended the jeans he wore to throw out the first pitch at in last week’s major league baseball All-Star game.

The jeans — a little too faded and riding a little high in the waist and at the ankle — betrayed our handsome president’s nerdy roots. (The super white running shoes and the zipped up jacket with a fitted waist only added to the cringe factor, but nobody’s talking about that, so I won’t either. )

So what does he have to say for himself? Was this his attempt at Continue reading »

Guy Wins Mother’s Day Discrimination Suit

So you thought Mother’s Day was just for people who were actually, well, mothers? Not according to this guy: Alfred Rava sued the Oakland A’s baseball franchise for discrimination because they wouldn’t give him a plaid reversible bucket hat as part of their Mother’s Day promotion.

No, Rava isn’t gay and trying to prove guys could be mothers too. He’s just a boneheaded lawyer who wanted his $20,000 fee for representing “the masses” in a class action suit. Continue reading »

They Say: Naming Son ‘Junior’ Might Make Him Crazy

My husband is a junior — actually, a II — and never once in three rounds of baby-naming did we consider anointing a III.

It’s not that I’m opposed to naming sons after their fathers (though it can be a hassle — more on that in a second), but my husband’s name is Wayne and he, especially, would like that name just go away.

As I said, sharing names has its drawbacks.  Continue reading »

Dads Getting Shafted on Father’s Day?

Geoff Williams thinks dads get the shaft on Father’s Day. Maybe he needs to come check out my house.

Williams bemoaned his package of boxer shorts and flip light for reading at night in a Parenting essay featured on CNN this week, comparing them rather unfavorably to the cherry tree and match bird bath he’d picked out for his wife for Mother’s Day. Continue reading »

Obama’s Father’s Day Message

While I can understand some of the criticism directed at President Barack Obama (the less over-heated criticism, anyway), I hope that even his harshest critics can agree that he seems to be a good dad. This Father’s Day, the Commander-in-Chief shares some of his thoughts on daddyhood in Parade Magazine.

First, a quick aside: Everyone who thinks that “print is dead” needs to realize that millions of Americans still read newspapers. Why else would President Obama contact Parade and ask them to publish his essay? He could just put it on the Internet, right? But if he did, many people wouldn’t get to read it. Continue reading »

Birth Film for Traumatized Fathers

The Other Side of the Glass - For more funny movies, click here

Until now, all the important birth films — The Business of Being Born, Orgasmic Birth, Baby Mama — have focused on women’s experiences during pregnancy and labor.

But a Missouri filmmaker has turned her lens on fathers and their babies, who, as this eight-minute clip shows, are having traumatic experiences of their own during birth.

What could possibly compete with the pain of a dilating cervix? Continue reading »